Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-07-28
MASCULINE DRESS.

A Lady Who Thinks That Reform L
| Badly Needed Among Men.
| I must confess that I have given
very little thought to the subject Of
mans dress, but ] can say that
think the present styles of gentle
| mems dress are, for the most part, un-
| graceful, the cut being bad. and the
colors cold. The nearest approach I'd
| beauty is the uniform of the Prussian
officers. This comprises tight trous-
ers, coat closely fitting the form and
gay colors. The Austrian officers
| also have a beautiful uniform. II
men. in their ordinary dress, con-
formed to such an attire as this, it
would be more agreeable to those who
have to look at them.
As for evening dress, see no rea-
son why the court dress-knee-
breaches. silk stockings. frilled shirt,
diamond buckles and all the rest OF
such paraphernalia--sho not be
adopted. 1t is certainly picturesque
and beautiful, and the objection
which has been been made to it can
not hold good, were it kept exclu.
sively for evening wear.
1t has been contended that the court
dress is unsuited for work a-day life.
BY evening the working part of the
day is over, and the gentleman trans
formed thus from the garb to the but
terfly, would treble his chances with
the ladies by making himself that
''thing of beauty" which, according
to the poet, is 10y forever" The
only objection which I could find to
such a change would be that every
body would be getting married. The
worst looking and most commonplace
of men would be vastly improved by
such a costume, and could scarcely
fail to secure wife, Will, those tc
whom nature had been more generous
would be bored by attentions from the
fair sex worse than even poor actor
Montague was.
There was movement in favor OF
knee breaches some years ago, and
they were adopted to some extent at
evening mblies, but the critics
were too much for them.
Englishmen dress better than Amer
leans, because they dress more suitably.
An Englishman has his morning coat,
his afternoon coat, and his evening
coat. and of course his other clothes to
correspond. For other occasions he
has appropriate costumes, as, for in
stance, the scarlet coat for the hunting
field, the Norfolk jacket for country
wear and boating, and the tennis suit.
Sack-coats are very ugly. and frock-
coats are not much better, but sup
pose the ordinary business suit is as
we'll fitted for the use that an ordinary
man makes of it in the business day as
any other that could be devised. 1t is
the evening dress of conventional black
that I find so unnecessarily revolving.
Why man, when he arrays himself
for festive occasion, should want to
look as much like his butler or his un-
dertaker, as possible, is past my COM
prehension. Why. a group of gentle
men at ceremonious evening gather
ing are as much alike as a row of
crows!
At evening parties they now wear a
sort of sack dress-coat which is tolera-
BILE, and white waistcoats are beginning
to be seen again. This is slight inn
provement, and we may yet see men
attired in such way that the dress
shall proclaim the man."
1t is sometimes asked what is the
difference between a well-dressed gen.
tleman and dude. It seems to me
that there is a psychological side to
this question. What influence does
dress have upon two different kinds of
menP The dude is part of his dress.
while the dress is part of the gentle
man. That is, the gentleman is easy,
of his jothing-domi- |
mates it, in fact We all remember the |
answer to Dundreary's conundrum that
the dog "waggled" his tail because
the dog was stronger than the tail.
Otherwise the tail would waggle the |
log.
1t is something the same with dress.
A gentleman wears good clothes nat
urally, while, to give the definition of |
Herr Teufelsdrockh, a dude lis "a
man, a man whose |
trade, office and existence consist in |
The wearing of clothes. Every faculty |
IF his soul, spirit pulse and person is
1eroically consecrated to this one OBJ |
ect, the wearing of clothes wisely and |
we'll; so that. as others dress to live, |
ne lives to dress. Dora Wheeler, in |
Epoch.